Dems Solve Florida/Michigan Debacle?

The Democratic Party finally came to a conclusion on how to deal with the rogue states of Florida and Michigan.One of the more interesting points to me was not the many interruptions by spectators or the unannounced closed-door meeting.No, it was the details of the deal.They decided to seat all delegates from both states, but only allow each delegate a ½ vote.This was an alternative to another proposal that would have seated 50% of the delegates from each state.Which solution they chose made a difference in the number of delegates each of the remaining candidates would receive.Only in the Democratic Party does .50 not equal ½.

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9 Responses to Dems Solve Florida/Michigan Debacle?

From what I’ve read, Koolaid, the arguments turned, at least in part, over whether the 1/15 vote in Michigan could be read as representing the will of the voters in that state. Since turnout in Michigan was said by the MDP chair to have been 15% lower than expected due to the forecasted penalty (even Hillary told people their votes wouldn’t count), a lot of people stayed home. How do you tell what the will of those voters would be? So the RBC had to decide between the Clinton argument, which was to treat the 1/15 election as if it were conducted under the same conditions as every other primary (which it was not), and the Obama argument, which was that it was a terribly flawed primary in which many people were upset and angry and could not vote for either Obama or Edwards, neither of whose names were on the ballot. In the end, they went with the Michigan Dem Party Chair’s data, which supported the Obama argument that the primary could not be treated like any other state’s, due to the high number of write-in ballots that were thrown out, among other reasons. Check out the blog on Alternet.org for a more extended analysis.

I understand this was in impossible task. In essence, the Dems were now faced with counting the votes of people who did not vote. How could that process not be flawed? I just thought it humorous that 100*1/2 is not the same as 50*1 in our party right now. You must admit, it is for reasons like these that we have blown elections in the past. That being said, I think we are in pretty good shape heading toward November. There will be some residual effects, but mainly among people who would never vote Democratic in the first place. I hope we are now through with this ridiculous, unpleasant piece of business and can move on. Everybody knows who the candidate will be. It is time to start talking about John McCain and quit talking about Florida/Michigan.

a big reason they chose to seat all the delegates and only give them half votes as opposed to seating only half with full votes was the simple fact was they didn’t want to anger the party activists who were looking forward to the baloons in Denver. This way everybody gets to go and feel a part of the process.

as it now seems certain that we won’t get the brokered convention that I for one was looking forward to (rumor is Clinton will concede tomorow night) I recommend that everyone watch The West Wing season 6 episode 22. Sure looks like it would have made for entertaining TV.

Koolaid, i can’t provide a link right now because I’m on a iPhone but go checkout youtube. I wish it was as you say because I am/was (yes past tense) a Clinton supporter, but the Fl dems very happily went along with the republicans. I’ll try to post a link later of the Fl dem rep on the floor putting forward a formal objection to the Republican motion to move up the calender all the while with a HUGE smile across his face. The democrats in the state legislature wanted the republican calender, they were not victims in this. That being said, the democratic Voters were absoltely victims in all this. They and the Michigan voters had no say in all this yet were penalized nonetheless.

sorry for ranting, as I’m sure is evident I am very frustrated (why Edwards, why!!!) but the distribution of MI delegates was very shady. Yes it is a forgone conclusion were it to go to the convention the uncommited’s would as a block back obama, and yes 85% of them (says exit polls) meant obama in voting uncommited, but it was wrong for the rules commitee to assert their will onto the uncommiteds. Respect the process and let the uncommitted’s back obama at the convention.

Even worse the rules commitee gave obama 4 plus delegates ontop of the uncommited’s. You can’t do that! I understand there were some obama supporters who maybe voted Clinton because his name was not on the ballet and I understand the write in’s which did not count were overwhelingly for obama, but to award delegtes on the basis of guess math done on an abicas based on polling and exits is just wrong. Think of the precedent they are establishing. laura beth, I know you are a staunch supporter of obama, but even you must admit that’s just wrong …

Recall that the Michigan primary, like the Florida contest, was not legitimate. Period. As far as the party was concerned — and as far as Clinton herself was concerned, before she fell behind Barack Obama — the primary never happened. None of the candidates campaigned in Michigan. Obama’s name wasn’t even on the ballot.
Yet, in the interest of party unity, the rules committee came up with a formula that gave Clinton credit for 69 delegates that she “won” running virtually unopposed in a vote that technically never took place. Ickes and the angry Clinton supporters who protested the committee meeting objected to the fact that Obama was awarded Michigan delegates that he didn’t win. But Clinton, too, was awarded delegates she didn’t win, because — remember? — there was no legitimate Michigan primary.

BRAZILE: Look, in 72 hours I’m sure many of us will declare because there’s no question that the pressure is on to end this nomination fight. The battle’s over. We know the victor. And I learned a great deal sitting in a room, on some of the struggles we did in the middle of the night. Of course, we were drinking fresh water. I kept waiting to see if the Clinton campaign would go over to the Obama campaign or the undeclared superdelegates and cut a deal. And there was no effort whatsoever to come to the undeclared superdelegates. Remember, we’re a bunch of superdelegates. The Clinton campaign went in with 13 declared superdelegates. Obama had nine. He walked away yesterday, if you look at the final vote, with 19 people taking his position. He also could have won on a crucial vote on this Michigan proposal to split the delegation 50-50. And rather than cause a ruckus they gave in. He had the votes. And the Clinton campaign never took the olive branch. Instead they wanted to come out and —